McCall’s 7345 – 1930’s adorableness!

I work in a university theatre department, and I’ll be putting together a number of 1930’s patterns for a play this summer. I usually draft my own patterns – but time is of the essence, and all my student labor has gone home for the summer!

First up is a 1930’s McCall’s pattern:

Super cute, eh? The challenge on this one was that my actress has a bust that’s about 8″ larger than the pattern bust – so it had to be severely graded up. The toile looks very promising, though:

I can’t wait to try it on my actress and put it together in the fashion fabric!

We’re going to see how it looks on the actress before making a decision about the peek-a-boo. I think it would be easy enough to just put a CB zipper back there, and still have the cute button detail at the top. I made a toile of the cape, too – but the dress is so cute that I hate to cover it up!

Thanks so much for ‘taking the plunge’ and posting such interesting & educational an entry! Your blog is also full of details that will be of great help – already downloaded a pdf of your grading recommendation from Threads. (I’ve known Threads for years – do I check them ? Duh! More fun to find out from others like yourself!)

Isn’t this the biggest problem though, using vintage patterns for our modern figures? Our bosoms seem to be HUGE in comparison to any from the 30’s up to the 60’s. I wish there was some simple way or book that would explain how to grade patterns up to fit E-cup boob’s into B-cup bodices

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